Tuesday, April 22, 2008

salt

you need to go to this restaurant when you're in baltimore. hell you should go to baltimore just to eat at this restaurant.

i was going to keep this relatively short, because...well, because i just want to say a few words and let you drool. but i kept typing and drooling too, so we're all in this together kids.

we arrived for our reservation and i decided i wanted megan (our intrepid server) to like us. so 'we're going to need another table to hold all the food we're about to eat' was line 1. showing my uber-geek appreciation for their food, and being excited about being there was the tone for the rest of the meal. of course, it worked.

next up was deciding on appetizers. we talked about ordering a slider course, then an appetizer course, then a meal.

we would have exploded. so we cut out the appetizer course and went with slider and entre.

that kobe beef and HUNK of foie gras? it was stunning. it was exceptional. it was my first foie gras.

yes, i lived in paris. yes i avoided foie gras even then. it was organ meat. i was anti-organ. i got better. thank you bitter man. the slider came with a truffle aioli and a red onion marmalade. and not a scrap of it was left on my plate.

note to salt...grill the bread a bit. a crust and crunch followed by a creamy, foie gras-y, beefy orgasm would make your customers VERY happy.

after recovering, finishing my glass of Concha Y Toro Casillero del Diablo Carmenere, and stepping outside to cool off and grab a smoke, it was back for the main course.

thank god for main courses.

if you're going to eat foie gras for the first time, you might as well follow up with the second time in the same meal. bbq pork cheeks with carmelized brussel sprouts, foie gras, and roasted pecan dust with sweet potato chips.

ummm, if the thought of the fat in the pork cheeks having reached the perfect temperature to be a sticky glue holding fork-tender cheek meat together as it sat lovingly in a shallow pool of tangy, sweet sauce is something you enjoy, this is the part of the post for you. 'cause that happened. it was absolutely stunning. i almost couldn't bring myself to share. note to steph, i will not share next time.

the brussels sprouts were an incredible side/complement. the foie gras folded in to the shredded sprouts was perfect. creamy, crunch from the sprouts, earth from the pecan dust. salty, sweet. crisp, smooth.

her dish was no slouch either. and by that i mean sweet ever-loving jebus. 1/8 inch crust of coriander and peppercorns. 1/8 inch sear of cooked tuna. 3 inches of ruby-red, damn near raw goodness of tuna.

i avoided the seaweed salad, but tried her tuna and some of the tuna potstickers that came with it. interesting to pair two applications of the same fish. i tried bites of each, a bite with both, some with the ginger/soy glaze, etc.

each was good, they were great together on the same plate, but i wouldn't recommend putting them on the same fork at the same time. in no way a critique on the food, just on my decision-making process in eating it.

i was very glad megan knew what to get me when i let her pick glass o' wine number two. but it isn't on their wine list by the glass, so i'm not 100% sure of the label. it was a zin, and it was a glass of blackberry/cherry/currant jam, and i wanted to lick the glass.

i moved on to the dessert special, a candied ginger tuile (cookie, call it a cookie) with pear sorbet, ricotta whipped cream, mascerated blueberries, and basil chiffonade. did not suck. at all.

it didn't work to take a little bit of all the flavors in one bite, the pear got lost that way. but some tuile, pear, and cream? or pear, blueberries, and basil? yeah that was it. and meant that i really had about 12 desserts on my plate.

miss steph went for the three mini-cones with dolce de leche, irish cream, and mint chocolate chip. my fave was the irish cream. steph was gaga for the mint. and really, we both won.

salt's a hip spot, with a hip young bal'mer crowd, and hip, groovy decor. can't wait to get back and eat there more. but apparently steph and i have a mile-long list of bal'mer food to get through, so it might be a while.